Savings Celebration

As a stay-at-home mom, I try to contribute financially by saving us a few bucks with our shopping.  We mainly save on toiletries, household supplies, yogurt, cereal, and granola bars.  We try to buy mostly fresh produce and meats and there are rarely any coupons for that.  I'm not one who will buy an item just because it's on sale.  I try to shop and meal plan by the sale, but I won't cut my family's nutritional needs to save money.  We LOVE cereal as an easy breakfast.  We love granola bars, but we limit those for snacks on the go and snacks for Guy to take to work.   He goes through A LOT of granola bars! 

So, when I see a deal on cereal and granola bars that we like, I grab it up!

I haven't been to CVS in a while and was excited to find everything I was looking for today!

I got :
Multigrain Cheerios
Chocolate Cheerios
Raisin Bran Crunch x 2
Pampers Diapers 36 count
Fiber One Bars x 2
Nature Valley Bars x 4
Nutri Grain Bards x 2
Kid's Colgate Toothpaste x 2
Colgate Total Whitening Toothpaste
Garnier Fructis  Curl Sculpting Cream Gel x 2
Garnier Fructis Pure and Clean Shampoo
 $10 Shell Gift Card

TOTAL of $31.94  (really $21.94)
SAVINGS OF  $56.47

I look at it as $21.94 out of pocket because I look at the $10 gas card as a $10 coupon.  It's a reward for spending $30 on certain products. I'll be spending the $10 on gas anyway.  

Here's what I did:

Key:  Q = coupon      OOP = out of pocket      
ECB = Extra Care Bucks (spends like cash at CVS)

Transaction #1
3 Garnier Fructis items:  3 for $10 - $3 (3 $1 off Qs) = $7 OOP  get $3 ECB
1 Pampers Diapers: $8.99 - $2 Q =  $6.99 00P get $3 ECB
Total OOP = $13.99  
Received $6 ECB to use on next transaction

Transaction #2
2 Cheerios: $2.50 each    $5- $1 Q = $4
2 Raisin Bran Crunch:  $2.50 each    $5- $1 Q = $4
2 Fiber One Bars: $2.50 each    $5 - 0.80 Qs = $4.20
4 Nature Valley Bars: $2.50 each  $10 - $1.50 Qs = $8.50
2 Nutri Grain Bars: $2.50 each   $5 - $1 Q = $4
3 Colgate Items: 3 for $5 - 0.75 Q= $4.25
TOTAL For Items:  $28.95 - $5/$25 CVS purchase Q = $23.95
                               $23.95 - $6 ECB from Transaction #1 = $17.95 

Transaction #2 Total:
$17.95 OOP    Recieved $10 Shell Gas Card
 *  I count that as $7.95 OOP because I reimburse my grocery money with $10 of gas money for the gift card.

So, all that for $13.99 + $7.95 = $21.94 OOP  SAVED $56.47


A savings of 72% MAKES MY HEART HAPPY!   
Now, if those snacks will last Guy more than a week I'll be REALLY HAPPY!  :)  Hee!  Hee!   Love you, honey!